The present invention comprises a new and distinct cultivar of grapevine botanically known as Vitis vinifera and hereinafter referred to as grapevine named ‘Royal Red’. As used herein, ‘grapevine’ refers to all plant parts including, vines, canes, tendrils, leaves, fruit and roots of the grapevine named ‘Royal Red’. Grapevine named ‘Royal Red’ is the result of an effort to produce an early ripening, red-colored seedless grape with fruit characteristics superior to commercial cultivar ‘Scarlet Royal’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 16,229). The new variety is the result of hybridization of ‘Autumn Royal’ (unpatented), the pollen parent, and ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’ (unpatented), the seed parent. The new variety was first hybridized in Plainview, Calif. in the Spring of 2008. Vines of the new variety were asexually propagated in the Fall of 2010 by cutting cross-pollinated dormant wood from plants and grafting to ‘Freedom’ (unpatented) rootstock in a variety block located in Tulare, Calif. In 2018 the new variety was planted as rooted cuttings in a variety block located in Tulare, Calif. The present invention has been found to retain its distinctive characteristics through successive asexual reproductions.
Grapevine named ‘Royal Red’ differs from its female parent ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’ (unpatented) in that grapevine named ‘Royal Red’ has large ovoid shaped, blush skinned seedless berries, whereas the female parent ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’ (unpatented) has small round shaped, black seeded berries. Grapevine named ‘Royal Red’ differs from its male parent ‘Autumn Royal’ (unpatented) in that grapevine named ‘Royal Red’ has ovoid shaped, blush skinned berries, whereas the male parent ‘Autumn Royal’ (unpatented) has ovoid shaped, dark purple to black berries. Grapevine named ‘Royal Red may be compared to the commercial cultivar ‘Scarlet Royal’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 16,229), however, grapevine named ‘Royal Red’ has certain distinguishing characteristics. Grapevine named ‘Royal Red’ differs from the commercial cultivar ‘Scarlet Royal’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 16,229) in that the berry clusters produced by grapevine named ‘Royal Red’ are noticeably smaller than the berry clusters produced by the commercial cultivar ‘Scarlet Royal’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 16,229). The berries produced by grapevine named ‘Royal Red’ are larger in size than the berries produced by the commercial cultivar ‘Scarlet Royal’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 16,229) whereby the average berry size for grapevine named ‘Royal Red’ is 8 grams and the average berry size for the commercial cultivar ‘Scarlet Royal’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 16,229) is 5.8 grams. The berries produced by grapevine named ‘Royal Red’ mature in mid-August, approximately one to two weeks earlier than ‘Scarlet Royal’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 16,229) when grown in the San Joaquin Valley of Central California.